Posted on 12/19/2004 6:19:45 AM PST by TFine80
It is news guaranteed to make many Republicans squirm. Was Abraham Lincoln, founder of the party now seeking a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage in America, actually gay himself?
A new book, published next month, certainly thinks so. The Intimate World of Abraham Lincoln by C.A. Tripp produces evidence that one of America's greatest Presidents had a long-term relationship with a youthful friend, Joshua Speed, and shared his bed with David Derickson, captain of his bodyguards.
Tripp, a former researcher for sex scientist Alfred Kinsey and an influential gay writer, includes asides by many of Lincoln's close friends. 'He was not very fond of girls, as he seemed to me,' his stepmother, Sarah Bush Lincoln, once told a friend.
It also includes a diary excerpt by one upper-class Washington woman who wrote of Derickson: 'There is a Bucktail soldier here devoted to the President, drives with him, and when Mrs L is not home, sleeps with him. What stuff!'
Scholars have long debated Lincoln's sexuality, and as early as the 1920s were making veiled references to his relationship with Speed. However, critics say that in the pioneer days men sleeping together in rough circumstances was not uncommon.
Now Tripp has discovered letters between Lincoln and Speed which supposedly betray a deep intimacy.
But Tripp's book really breaks new ground in its exhaustive portrayal of many of Lincoln's possible gay lovers, including one man who said Lincoln's thighs 'were as perfect as a human being could be'.
'Make no mistake - Abe Lincoln was gay,' said Professor Scott Thompson, from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts.
But David Donald, a Harvard professor and respected Lincoln biographer, has disputed Tripp's findings in his own book, We Are Lincoln Men, published last year, and says there is no definitive proof of Lincoln having affairs with any men.
Every single Lincoln historian, even the most liberal ones, all say this is crap but the media just can't help itself.
The only historical person liberals don't believe to be gay is Mohhamed. Maybe if Lincoln's modern day supporters liked to kill women and children Abe would get some respect from the liberals.
The saga continues:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1302924/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1285093/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-backroom/1259883/posts
you know, i was just wondering if hillary is gay? anyone care to write a book?
I wonder if they'd a had the guts to say a lumberjack of that time was queer? Does sleeping in the same bed with another man make you queer?
Grandfather said it was two beds to a bunk and 4 men to a bunk and spare the straw!
"Frick" the Giardian!
Maybe FR could get more media play if we proclaime that all these 'queer' writers are actually closet heterosexuals who bowl on Tuesdays, watch NASCAR, and actually vote for Bush no matter how much they protest the opposite. Rumor #1: Which famous gay has a 260 league average, is a Dale Jr. fan, and put a 'W' sticker on his wife's Ford Excursion before getting his kids from Tae Kwon Do class??
Why do you think Clinton had an affair(s)?
The 'expert' 'teaches' at Tufts - a wanna-be 'Ivy' in beantown. 'nough said!
Now if it were to matter, who is calling who gay with that picture on the internet?
"Now Tripp has discovered letters between Lincoln and Speed which supposedly betray a deep intimacy."
...written in 11.5 Times New Roman wrap-around text and delivered by Lucy at the livestock show. Call Dan!!!
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